Re: Am I the only one who dislikes my ZYNC?

espnjunkie wrote:

Cdnewmanpac wrote:

ryanbush wrote:

Same here, almost all of my spending goes on the green... this way it's not factored into utilization and doesn't affect my scores

A word of caution: it doesn't factor in to utilization, but it does count as a card with a balance. Both are part of the fico scoring algorithm. So while it may not increase your utilization to have a balance post, it can lower your fico (depending upon your bucket).

As to the original topic, my zync was very useful over the past year. For much of that year, it was the only card I had that earned bonus points on restaurants. It was also the only card I could use at costco. Since I spent over 20k at costco this past year, that was a real value. I paid the cost of the restaurant pack on small business saturday and paid the AF with a credit from costco.com. So I got about 30k in MRE points that I would not have gotten without the zync.

That being said, as my limits grow and now that I have the costco TE, I'm using it less frequently. I'm waiting until March (when AF is due) and will either close the card, cash out my remaining MRE points with a home depot gc (1cpp), use it to book a hotel through the amex web site (1.2cpp) or get a platinum and then convert to american or BA when a bonus is offered. Really depends on if I get a targeted sign up offer for platinum. I have enough trips coming up on American that the 200 airline credit will get used. Now that DIA has Precheck, I'd use the global entry. So if I can get an offer of at least 35000 mr points, it will be worth upgrading.

Or I might just keep the zync for nostalgia and for the occasional statement credit offer. Either way, it has been more than useful to me.

What kills the Discover It for me is that you only get .25% cash back until you hit $3,000.00 in spending each year. Chase, Amex, US Bank, Citi all offer similar products that don't have that minimum to start earning rewards of any significance. Heck even my starter cap one card gives a full 1% cash back all year round. Unless the Discover card is your primary spending card it probably isn't the most useful for this reason.

^^^using a charge card shouldn't impact you much so long as balances on other cards are kept low. Charge cards are designed to be primary spending cards and not hit you on utilization.

for me the NPSL is well worth the 95$.... I know it's not unlimited spending but I have changed well above the limits on my other cards with my Green card and never had an issue. it's nice to know if I need to charge expenses for work I don't have to worry about my credit limits I can charge and go. Also if I'm traveling I don't have to worry about anything knowing I have the ability to charge well above my limits

Re: Am I the only one who dislikes my ZYNC?

ryanbush wrote:

espnjunkie wrote:

Cdnewmanpac wrote:

ryanbush wrote:

Same here, almost all of my spending goes on the green... this way it's not factored into utilization and doesn't affect my scores

A word of caution: it doesn't factor in to utilization, but it does count as a card with a balance. Both are part of the fico scoring algorithm. So while it may not increase your utilization to have a balance post, it can lower your fico (depending upon your bucket).

As to the original topic, my zync was very useful over the past year. For much of that year, it was the only card I had that earned bonus points on restaurants. It was also the only card I could use at costco. Since I spent over 20k at costco this past year, that was a real value. I paid the cost of the restaurant pack on small business saturday and paid the AF with a credit from costco.com. So I got about 30k in MRE points that I would not have gotten without the zync.

That being said, as my limits grow and now that I have the costco TE, I'm using it less frequently. I'm waiting until March (when AF is due) and will either close the card, cash out my remaining MRE points with a home depot gc (1cpp), use it to book a hotel through the amex web site (1.2cpp) or get a platinum and then convert to american or BA when a bonus is offered. Really depends on if I get a targeted sign up offer for platinum. I have enough trips coming up on American that the 200 airline credit will get used. Now that DIA has Precheck, I'd use the global entry. So if I can get an offer of at least 35000 mr points, it will be worth upgrading.

Or I might just keep the zync for nostalgia and for the occasional statement credit offer. Either way, it has been more than useful to me.

What kills the Discover It for me is that you only get .25% cash back until you hit $3,000.00 in spending each year. Chase, Amex, US Bank, Citi all offer similar products that don't have that minimum to start earning rewards of any significance. Heck even my starter cap one card gives a full 1% cash back all year round. Unless the Discover card is your primary spending card it probably isn't the most useful for this reason.

^^^using a charge card shouldn't impact you much so long as balances on other cards are kept low. Charge cards are designed to be primary spending cards and not hit you on utilization.

for me the NPSL is well worth the 95$.... I know it's not unlimited spending but I have changed well above the limits on my other cards with my Green card and never had an issue. it's nice to know if I need to charge expenses for work I don't have to worry about my credit limits I can charge and go. Also if I'm traveling I don't have to worry about anything knowing I have the ability to charge well above my limits

I definitely agree. Charge cards grant much more spending power than normal credit cards and you don't have to worry about hitting a hard cap or being stuck with insufficent fund availability.

Re: Am I the only one who dislikes my ZYNC?

espnjunkie wrote:

What kills the Discover It for me is that you only get .25% cash back until you hit $3,000.00 in spending each year. Chase, Amex, US Bank, Citi all offer similar products that don't have that minimum to start earning rewards of any significance. Heck even my starter cap one card gives a full 1% cash back all year round. Unless the Discover card is your primary spending card it probably isn't the most useful for this reason.

Convert your Discover More to a Discover It to remove this limitation.

Re: Am I the only one who dislikes my ZYNC?

Same here, almost all of my spending goes on the green... this way it's not factored into utilization and doesn't affect my scores

A word of caution: it doesn't factor in to utilization, but it does count as a card with a balance. Both are part of the fico scoring algorithm. So while it may not increase your utilization to have a balance post, it can lower your fico (depending upon your bucket).

As to the original topic, my zync was very useful over the past year. For much of that year, it was the only card I had that earned bonus points on restaurants. It was also the only card I could use at costco. Since I spent over 20k at costco this past year, that was a real value. I paid the cost of the restaurant pack on small business saturday and paid the AF with a credit from costco.com. So I got about 30k in MRE points that I would not have gotten without the zync.

That being said, as my limits grow and now that I have the costco TE, I'm using it less frequently. I'm waiting until March (when AF is due) and will either close the card, cash out my remaining MRE points with a home depot gc (1cpp), use it to book a hotel through the amex web site (1.2cpp) or get a platinum and then convert to american or BA when a bonus is offered. Really depends on if I get a targeted sign up offer for platinum. I have enough trips coming up on American that the 200 airline credit will get used. Now that DIA has Precheck, I'd use the global entry. So if I can get an offer of at least 35000 mr points, it will be worth upgrading.

Or I might just keep the zync for nostalgia and for the occasional statement credit offer. Either way, it has been more than useful to me.

What kills the Discover It for me is that you only get .25% cash back until you hit $3,000.00 in spending each year. Chase, Amex, US Bank, Citi all offer similar products that don't have that minimum to start earning rewards of any significance. Heck even my starter cap one card gives a full 1% cash back all year round. Unless the Discover card is your primary spending card it probably isn't the most useful for this reason.

^^^using a charge card shouldn't impact you much so long as balances on other cards are kept low. Charge cards are designed to be primary spending cards and not hit you on utilization.

for me the NPSL is well worth the 95$.... I know it's not unlimited spending but I have changed well above the limits on my other cards with my Green card and never had an issue. it's nice to know if I need to charge expenses for work I don't have to worry about my credit limits I can charge and go. Also if I'm traveling I don't have to worry about anything knowing I have the ability to charge well above my limits

I definitely agree. Charge cards grant much more spending power than normal credit cards and you don't have to worry about hitting a hard cap or being stuck with insufficent fund availability.

+1. I have over $2,000 in my Zync spending ability, which is more than enough to cover my monthly expenses. It is also gives me a peace of mind just in case I need the extra spending power. It's much fast to go from a $1,000 in spending power to $5,000+ in spending power on a charge card than with a regular credit card. It is true that Amex NPSL engine changes month to month and with longer membership, but it's spending power is still greater than most credit limits.

Re: Am I the only one who dislikes my ZYNC?

espnjunkie wrote:

Cdnewmanpac wrote:

ryanbush wrote:

Same here, almost all of my spending goes on the green... this way it's not factored into utilization and doesn't affect my scores

A word of caution: it doesn't factor in to utilization, but it does count as a card with a balance. Both are part of the fico scoring algorithm. So while it may not increase your utilization to have a balance post, it can lower your fico (depending upon your bucket).

As to the original topic, my zync was very useful over the past year. For much of that year, it was the only card I had that earned bonus points on restaurants. It was also the only card I could use at costco. Since I spent over 20k at costco this past year, that was a real value. I paid the cost of the restaurant pack on small business saturday and paid the AF with a credit from costco.com. So I got about 30k in MRE points that I would not have gotten without the zync.

That being said, as my limits grow and now that I have the costco TE, I'm using it less frequently. I'm waiting until March (when AF is due) and will either close the card, cash out my remaining MRE points with a home depot gc (1cpp), use it to book a hotel through the amex web site (1.2cpp) or get a platinum and then convert to american or BA when a bonus is offered. Really depends on if I get a targeted sign up offer for platinum. I have enough trips coming up on American that the 200 airline credit will get used. Now that DIA has Precheck, I'd use the global entry. So if I can get an offer of at least 35000 mr points, it will be worth upgrading.

Or I might just keep the zync for nostalgia and for the occasional statement credit offer. Either way, it has been more than useful to me.

What kills the Discover It for me is that you only get .25% cash back until you hit $3,000.00 in spending each year. Chase, Amex, US Bank, Citi all offer similar products that don't have that minimum to start earning rewards of any significance. Heck even my starter cap one card gives a full 1% cash back all year round. Unless the Discover card is your primary spending card it probably isn't the most useful for this reason.

^^^using a charge card shouldn't impact you much so long as balances on other cards are kept low. Charge cards are designed to be primary spending cards and not hit you on utilization.

Actually, the Discover It doesn't have tiered CB anymore. It's 1% cashback for all other purchases. Discover changed the program to compete with Chase Freedom.

Re: Am I the only one who dislikes my ZYNC?

lithium78 wrote:

espnjunkie wrote:

Cdnewmanpac wrote:

ryanbush wrote:

Same here, almost all of my spending goes on the green... this way it's not factored into utilization and doesn't affect my scores

A word of caution: it doesn't factor in to utilization, but it does count as a card with a balance. Both are part of the fico scoring algorithm. So while it may not increase your utilization to have a balance post, it can lower your fico (depending upon your bucket).

As to the original topic, my zync was very useful over the past year. For much of that year, it was the only card I had that earned bonus points on restaurants. It was also the only card I could use at costco. Since I spent over 20k at costco this past year, that was a real value. I paid the cost of the restaurant pack on small business saturday and paid the AF with a credit from costco.com. So I got about 30k in MRE points that I would not have gotten without the zync.

That being said, as my limits grow and now that I have the costco TE, I'm using it less frequently. I'm waiting until March (when AF is due) and will either close the card, cash out my remaining MRE points with a home depot gc (1cpp), use it to book a hotel through the amex web site (1.2cpp) or get a platinum and then convert to american or BA when a bonus is offered. Really depends on if I get a targeted sign up offer for platinum. I have enough trips coming up on American that the 200 airline credit will get used. Now that DIA has Precheck, I'd use the global entry. So if I can get an offer of at least 35000 mr points, it will be worth upgrading.

Or I might just keep the zync for nostalgia and for the occasional statement credit offer. Either way, it has been more than useful to me.

What kills the Discover It for me is that you only get .25% cash back until you hit $3,000.00 in spending each year. Chase, Amex, US Bank, Citi all offer similar products that don't have that minimum to start earning rewards of any significance. Heck even my starter cap one card gives a full 1% cash back all year round. Unless the Discover card is your primary spending card it probably isn't the most useful for this reason.

^^^using a charge card shouldn't impact you much so long as balances on other cards are kept low. Charge cards are designed to be primary spending cards and not hit you on utilization.

Actually, the Discover It doesn't have tiered CB anymore. It's 1% cashback for all other purchases. Discover changed the program to compete with Chase Freedom.

But getting the Discover More with a $200 sign-up bonus is worth about 9 years of the maximum cash back difference that results from the tier system.

Re: Am I the only one who dislikes my ZYNC?

lithium78 wrote:

I am not impressed by AMEX at all. Their high level cards have nice perks if you are somebody who spends ridiculous amounts of money, but for the average person they just aren't competitive. Also, they randomly run FR, which would irritate me so much. I get a lot more in rewards from Discover and that card has never given me any issues whatsoever. It seems like most people just want an AMEX so they can impress their dates. LOL!

I would say their Platinum card is structured such that you have to pay a very small amount of money to get the perks involved - you do have to travel occasionally, but the Platinum starts looking good for someone who travels four times per year and doesn't have airline status. You get $200 airline credit a year (one airline, mind you) - that's 4 roundtrip baggage fees. The other $250, I would say, is covered by 8 airline lounge trips (that would be $400 a la carte, $450ish for a one-year pass -- assume each trip one-way has two legs and you stop by the lounge each time at your stopover) and SPG gold status (assume you stay at a Sheraton or something). All you have to do is pick Delta, American or US.

Their PRG, on the other hand, does require a lot of spending. And as for Green/Gold, I would say the Gold is more worthless, since it offers only "nebulous" advantages over the Green for a "hard" increase in AF. OTOH, I wish I had understood the Platinum reward structure better when I apped for Amex a few months ago. I could have saved on my holiday travel baggage fees and relaxed in the Skyclub rather than hanging out at a gate in ATL when my flight was delayed.

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION: All FICO® Score products made available on myFICO.com include a FICO® Score 8, along with additional FICO® Score versions. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than the versions you receive from myFICO, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more

FICO, myFICO, Score Watch, The score lenders use, and The Score That Matters are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation. Equifax Credit Report is a trademark of Equifax, Inc. and its affiliated companies. Many factors affect your FICO Score and the interest rates you may receive. Fair Isaac is not a credit repair organization as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Fair Isaac does not provide "credit repair" services or advice or assistance regarding "rebuilding" or "improving" your credit record, credit history or credit rating. FTC's website on credit.